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From the time it was described in 1905, Tyrannosaurus rex has been the most famous of dinosaurs. It was dubbed the “Prize-Fighter of Antiquity” by The New York Times when its partial skeleton first went on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and just about any superlative applicable to dinosaurs — biggest, meanest, most terrifying — has been applied to it.

Despite its celebrity status, however, the origins of Tyrannosaurus remained mysterious for decades. Its status as a rapacious carnivore was obvious from its massive skull full of banana-sized teeth, but where did it and its close relatives (such as Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus, Tarbosaurus, and Daspletosaurus) come from? The man who gave the dinosaur its name, Henry Fairfield Osborn, believed that…